April 18th - Kat and I got picked up at the Bupatara at 730am to head to Patara Elephant Camp. The camp is not a conservation center but has a conservationist mentality. Meaning that they care for and help elephants that have been domesticated but are no longer found to be useful for whatever reason. At the camp you are considered an ‘Elephant Owner for a Day.’ Which means you feed, bath, walk, ride and play with the elephants.

From the get go we were given a little briefing about what the camp is and what it isn’t and immediately that gave us a better feeling then the previous day’s elephant experience. The owner told us how Asian elephants were used throughout their history and how they were also almost extinct at one point. Sad to think about.

First we were taught how to approach the elephants so we’d call out “Bon” which must mean food and the elephant would lift up his trunk and open their mouths. We’d use the basket of bananas we had to feed them. Their mouths were smooth but slimey and they would inhale the bananas hand and all. Amazing how gentle they really are. After feeding them we gave them a command to sit down “no-lo” and the elephant would get down and we’d brush all the debris and dirt off their back from the night before when they were sleeping.

Interesting thing about elephants sleep patterns. The sleep for 30 minutes on one side, then stand up for 10 minutes then sleep for 30 more minutes on the other side. They repeat this all night for 5 hours. Needless to say in the morning they are covered with dirt and debris which once we cleaned off of them, we led them to the creek where we had them lie down again and begin to throw water on them and scrub them with a brush. They would just lay there looking at you with their big eyes with a sort of grin on their face. Much like a dog getting their belly rubbed. Pure elephant bliss.

After the bath we led them to the water which they drank from and their real handlers proceeded to tell them to hose us down so they’d all spray water from their trunks on us when we had our backs turned around. You kind of sensed it was coming but it still caught you off-gaurd.

Wet and dirty, we were showed the different techniques for how to get on the elephants. Lifted up by their trunk, climb up their leg or have them lay down and crawl up their back. My elephant, Kwon, the largest of them all only lets people on her via her back. I guess when you are that big, you set the rules. I didnt argue with her. She laid down and I got on. We are taught to basically sit all the way up her neck almost on their heads and to use our heels in their shoulders along with some verbal commands to steer. Although, we could get them to go in the general direction, I used the analogy of my dog Sasha. While you may be able to get her to sit or do something, she really only listens to me, IF anyone. The elephants are the same way. They’d really only listen to their handlers who were walking along side of each of us.

I don’t think there was going to be any stampeding from these elephants but the handlers were there just in case.

We rode the elephants for a long time, walking through the farms and into the jungles up towards this waterfall that they love so much. What was truly amazing about these huge beasts is how nimbly and softly they navigated trails too steep for humans to walk down comfortably and too narrow for a small car to fit through. They would gently and patiently step up and down the trail with ease. If you didn’t know you were on an elephant, you wouldn’t have been able to guess based on how quietly and gracefully they moved through the jungle. We were all in awe. When we arrived at the base of the waterfall the elephants walked right into the pool with us on their backs. It was hilarious, they would play with each other and roll around tossing us around like we weren’t even there.

The elephants all chilled out and we headed up a small trail to where the waterfall was crashing in hoping to take a dip while they setup a picnic lunch for us. As we were going into the pool, Kat stepped on a piece of glass and cut her foot pretty deeply. The owner of the camp was really sorry and they bandaged her up and on the way home stopped her by a clinic to get it checked out. She is fine but sore.

We ate the lunch which was sticky rice, chicken, pork, coconut sticky rice, some fruit and a few desserts of sorts. It was very good and we gave the non-meat leftovers to the elephants! After lunch we rode the rest of the way back to the camp, through some more creeks, farms and even down a road. Anywhere else that probably would have seemed odd but passing motorists didn’t even blink twice at the sight of 6 elephants walking down the road.

At the end of the day they took us over to meet the 10-day old elephant. He was awesome, a minature version of his very big mom but with the coordination you’d expect from a 10-day old elephant. At one point the baby slipped into Marta (the Italian girl with us) and the mom let out this ear-drum peircing roar that nearly made all of us wet ourselves. Merely a warning, we were in no harm.

At the end of the day we watched the handlers ride the elephants off into the mountains where they sleep. They chain up one of the younger females and the rest of the elephants just hang around her, if they chained up one of the males, the elephants would all wander away but none of them leave a chained up female. Very cool. The owner told us about an old Thai philosophy that really stuck with me.

1. “Walk like an elephant” - walk slowly and patiently, take time to notice your surrounding s rather than rushing from place to place. Very True
2. “Live like an elephant” - elephants are very family and friend oriented, they take care of and look after each other without being asked our asking anything in return.
3. “Eat like an elephant”- not sure I can adhere to this one, elephants are vegatarians and I’m a carnivore but it makes sense. Elephants don’t but in their bodies, half of the crap we do thus they suffer half of the problems. No elephant cancer, elephant heart attacks etc etc. It at least makes me think twice about what goes in my body.

Overall, it was truly an amazing experience. Doing good for the elephants, the farmers and the area in general. If you are ever in Chiang Mai, its highly recommended that you visit the Patara Elephant Farm.

It kind of hit me that this is the kind of responsible travel that is the good kind of travel.

…18th to be continued